Ask questions, frequently

I’ve been thinking about crafting a Frequently Asked Questions document for TechBlog for a while now. I get a lot of questions about what happens here, both in comments and in e-mail, and it would be handy to have a standing entry to which I can point the curious.

Some of the items I’d include are obvious — details about my background, how the blog got started, what kind of software it uses, why comments are moderated, and, of course, my favorite pair of questions:

Why are you such a Windows fanboy?

and

Why do you write so much about the Macintosh?

Those will be lots of fun to answer.

However, there’s no way I can think of everything that needs explaining, so I’d like your help.

What questions would you like to see answered in a TechBlog FAQ? Think in terms of the kind of questions that would have general interest to someone stumbling upon this blog for the first time.

Got a question? Leave a comment.

Update: Please note this is not for general computer help questions. We’ve got Jay Lee’s HelpLine for that. Instead, I’m looking for questions about TechBlog.

Instead of a single page where you ask and answer the questions, why not set up the page so that the questions are links to the specific blog posts?

So write a blog post about why you’re a Windows fanboy, and then on the FAQ page link to it. That way your readers get to add to it in the comments.

I’m not sure what blogging system you’re using, but if it’s wordpress I have a better solution. For all the posts you want in the FAQ, add them to a FAQ category. Then, get out your favorite text editor, copy index.php, rename it faq.php, and edit the code so it displays all the titles of the posts in the FAQ category. That way, whenever you want to add a new post to it, you just tag it and it automatically appears there.

I’d like to see you keep a running tab of web services/apps and/or devices you recommend along with links to the reviews. This is something I’m thinking about doing for my own blog, but you’ve got a lot more reach, and it might be a pretty valuable reference.

I use Mozilla Firefox. Sometimes, when I open your blog from the listing of blogs on Chron.com, it opens in a window, leaving the Chron Blogs on a tab. Other times it opens in a new window. I do it the same way everytime, by clicking Chron blogs and going down through the Justice, Taggert, Ortiz and then back up to Leon Hale, Jay Lee and then yours.

I think that this concept of posting articles and allowing the readers to post comments is a good model. As a result, I have been recommending to several non-profits that instead of producing a hard copy newsletter the old-fashioned way that they might consider incorporating this model.

My question for you is what software would you recommend? This is assuming that there is software available, which allows for this flexibility.

One of the benefits for small organizations is that it allows for the workload to be more even distributed plus all articles do not necessarily have to be posted the same day.

Dwight, I would like you to address how you typically obtain new gadgets/software for reviewing and what are the Chronicle’s ethics rules about avoiding conflicts of interests, etc. You might also want to mention what kind of non-disclosure rules you typically put under to obtain review materials. This might be an “inside baseball” type of question, but one that would be good to get out in the open for everyone to know about.

That would also allow you to redirect any attempts to paint you as a shill for any person or group to the FAQ Q#. Sort of a cut-and-paste defense against allegations of unethical behavior.

IMO, less than 5% of TechBlog’s content is Houston centric and mostly that refers to local meetings.

There are people all over the world, who read this blog. I am in Dallas, but I have recommended it far and wide.

PC World rated TechBlog as one of the top 100 best blogs. Jay Rosen, Journalism professor at New York University, has also rated the Houston Chronicle as the top implementer of leading edge technology.

In addition to adding the FAQ area, I think that you also need to add an additional area labeled “TechBlog’s Awards & Recognition” or something like that. It needs to be broad enough, so that it could include the special recognition that Jay Rosen bestowed on the Houston Chronicle.

This index area should be separate from all of the other areas and at the very top (or near the top of the page). This is also where I think the FAQ link should be also.

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